Saturday, July 31, 2010

18th July 2010 - Today we went to the Jurong Bird Park. It has been awhile since our last visit and the children is looking forward to it (as usual). It has been rainy recently and I am praying hard for good weather. Hubby checked the JBP website and learned that there'll be an Early Bird Breakfast show at 9.15am. So we woke up early and set off from our home.

830am - Reached Jurong Bird Park and look at the enthusiastic faces from the children. hehehe. I love them hugging each other when taking photos... but they still fight a lot!

WELCOME to JURONG BIRD PARK!We are the early birds today!

Cleaning up early in the morning. :)

Map of Jurong Bird Park. (good to take note the feeding time as well as the time of the various shows!). There are also suggested itinerary at the JBP website.

Our first stop is the Penguin Expedition. It is the nearest attraction to the entrance. It's good to be early as there is no one around except us! We get to talk, run around, take pictures and videos freely. Denver and Gladys love this place so much! They saw so many penguins!

Then we walked further ahead to see the Flamingos and took some photos with the birds. :)

Nice shot!

We headed back and out to the Bongo Burgers for the Early Bird Breakfast show. Park admission is not required... but we'll need to purchase a breakfast item to see show.

The Early Bird Breakfast Show

Venue: Bongo Burgers Terrace

Show starts at 9.15am

We picked a nice seat outside and sat down for breakfast. The show starts at 9.15am with our stars Ippy - the agile Scarlet Macaw that will show us it's tongue wagging and back flips skills. Also not forgetting Merlin, the Amazon who can mimick, sing a verse of the Happy Birthday song and also read your fortune. (All the good ones for sure!)

Merlin, the fortune teller, picking your good luck card for today!

The children are also given the chance to feed the little ducklings that came waggling out from the pond. So cute!

Before leaving the breakfast show, we also took a photos with one of the Macaw. It is quite an enjoyable experience. :) Glad we came early for the breakfast show.

Next, we quickly headed to the Birds of Prey Show (Fuji World of Hawks) which is starting at 10am. We picked the seat at the first row. (For the very first time we are seated so near to the front!)

Venue: Fuji Hawk Walk

Daily: 10 am (Fuji World of Hawks) and 4 pm (Kings of the Skies)

It started to drizzle and we started to get worried if the show will be cancelled. Many took out their brollies and we had our poncho as well. Luckily, the show went on!

The most exciting and proudest moment is definitely seeing Denver being picked as a volunteer to go up and have some fun. Denver always wanted to be pick in all the shows he have been.. he finally got his chance! It's so funny watching him... he looked and sound so nervous! (But he was so brave - watch the video clip!)

Say Hi to the Malay fish owls - Balang and Tupa! Another volunteer on stage!

Venue: Pools Amphitheatre

Daily: 11am, 3pm

Next Station - Birds n Buddies Show (11am). The children are hungry already.. No fear, Daddy got our "lunch" all packed! Lots of bottled drinks and packets of snacks. Hahahaha. We finished almost everything before the show even started. The really off-load Daddy's heavy bag. :p

Start of the Birds n Buddies show!

We are welcomed by a flock of flamingos and various birds flewing pass the audience. The entire show is fun-filled, educational and entertaining.

Denver putting a little donation to the Wildlife Reservations Singapore and take a photo with the birds.

After seating and watching 2 shows continuously, It's walking time! Due to a shortage of time, we headed straight to the Lory Loft. It is one of the free flight aviaries in the Bird Park. Lory Loft has so many colourful (red, yellow, green and blue feathered) Lories within!

We walked to the two-tiered central feeding tower where visitors can purchase and feed the birds. Beneath it is the suspension bridge and we saw the Lories flying past us. They are everywhere! On the branches of the trees, on the tower, at the side bars... The Lories are so colourful, noisy and bold! No matter how close we are to them, they stayed where they are instead of flying away. It is so fun to watch them at such a close distance!

Along the way there are a couple of other aviaries including the Southeast Asian Birds and Jungle Jewels. We gave that a pass and walked by the Birds of Prey (mainly hawks and eagles) and the Dinosaur Descendants (Ostrich) before reaching the Bird Discovery Centre where it house some fun and interesting facts.

The African Waterfall Aviary - This is another walk-in free flight aviary based on an African Tropical Rainforest inspiration. Upon entering, we are welcomed by the various African artifacts and art. There is a lily pond and the main attraction of all is the Waterfall. Standing on the platform and looking at the awesome scenary around the aviary is a great pleasure.

We walked past the Pelican cove and Flamingo lake. Our final show for today is the Children's Parrot Show. Unfortunately, it was raining and hence we are not able to watch the complete show with Pikasso painting for us. :( Still, we are able to catch Quincy who is superd in mimicking, Ippy the Scarlet Macaw with his back flips and others.

Venue: Pools Amphitheatre

Daily: 1 pm

Videos to be posted later

Just opposite the Pools Amphitheatre is The World of Darkness - House of the Owls! We went inside the dark room and there are a few owls including the Malay fish owls, Snowy owls, Great grey owls and others.

It's already half past 1 in the afternoon and it is still raining.. All of us are tired and hungry and there is still a long drive back home. So we left the park, had our lunch and a good long nap for the rest of the afternoon. :) It has been a fun trip to the Jurong Bird Park.

Thursday, July 29, 2010

We promised to bring Gladys to fly kite during the June holidays. Unfortunately due to the persistent heavy rains and incooperative weather, it was postponed again and again. We finally took her to Anchorvale last Sunday for some kite flying. It is one of the rare moments where there have been no rains for 2 days and the field is relatively dry.

Apart from kite lovers, there are many families with their children running around, playing ball and cycling in the field. A couple are sitting on their mats/mini chairs while enjoying and relaxing themselves looking at their kites in the sky.

Denver & his Eagle kite

We tried to fly our kite too... but there is just not enough wind to fly it high that evening! Hubby tried again and again and only managed to get it up for awhile. What a shame! Well, at least the kids had some fun running around. We'll try our luck next time. ^_^

Denver & Gladys chasing after the kite.

It is still a pleasure looking at the other pretty kites and also doing some walking around the big field together. The children complained they are tired without even completing half a round! Hahaha

Friday, July 23, 2010

Our family just visited the Night Safari about a week ago and recently, I got to know from the Wildlife Reserves Singapore's (WRS) facebook link that the Night Safari has launched a new map!

There seems to be a couple of changes at first look. The land area within the park seems to be slightly bigger, longer tram route (illusion?), some of the animals have shifted homes plus little additions (e.g. cave). What other differences did we missed??

Not sure if the returning visitors to the Night Safari will feel the differences. Nevertheless, I'm sure it will be an enjoyable evening at our night zoo.

Saturday, July 17, 2010

Singapore Garden Festival 2010 (15th-22nd July) is back again for the third time! This event is held every 2 years and it is our 2nd visit to the SGF since 2008. There are many floral displays, landscaping, gardens etc and I am always impressed with the flower show each time.

The carpark lift lobby at the basement have grass patches laid and even the lifts leading to the Exhibition halls at Suntec have been decorated from top to bottom.. Flowers beautify the entire hallway as if you are really in a garden.

Knowing that we will be snapping photos all the way, we came here prepared with our phones and cameras fully charged.

The SGF covers the 4th and 6th floor within the Suntec International Convention Hall. On our previous visit 2 years ago, we arrived in the evening (after dinner) and didn't have enough time. This year, we decided to come in the afternoon so that we have the entire evening to roam around.

We started with Level 6 to see the various winning equisite displays from the different countries. It is magnificent and just looking at the flowers brightens my day. Every piece of display looks like an art masterpiece. We see people around us busy taking photos either with their phones or cameras, and not forgetting the professionals who are equipped with their tripods and DSLR cameras. Everyone wants to have a good photo shot!

Denver and Gladys are not bored at the SGF at all... Why? They have been busy running and fighting for their turns to take pictures with their cameras as well. HAIZ.....

Maybe because it is our 2nd visit and hence I wasn't as excited and surprised compared to SGF 2008. :)

Some of my favourites. :)

At Level 6

At Level 4

After spending around 2 hours at level 6, we went to the Marina Square foodcourt to have our dinner before coming back again to check out the Orchids display at level 4! There are so many different colours and kinds of Orchids and many of which are award winners. It will be hundreds of photos if I were to take one for each of them!

FLOWERS EVERYWHERE!!

Some Fun Shots =)

Random photos

There are so much to see at SGF 2010. If you love greenery, flowers, landscaping and art, It is a must see event. :) We spent at least 4 hours to cover everything and YES, my legs and eyes are tired. Catch Singapore Garden Festival in 2012!!